08ASTANA1562, KAZAKHSTAN’S GERMAN MINORITY IS MORE THAN JUST A SHOWPIECE

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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ASTANA 001562
SENSITIVE
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUMSOCIPGOVPRELECONKZ
SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTAN'S GERMAN MINORITY IS MORE THAN JUST A SHOWPIECE
ASTANA 00001562 001.2 OF 003
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Summary
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¶1. (SBU) Although their community shrank dramatically in the 1990s,
ethnic Germans remain one of the largest and best organized minority
groups in Kazakhstan. The German government provides the German
minority significant resources to strengthen its minority
Association, improve its economic prospects, and solidify its place
in Kazakhstani society. Aleksandr Dederer, the long-time president
of the German minority Association, is a source of strong leadership
in both the Association, which has 23 chapters throughout the
country, and its chamber of commerce, which has scored recent
victories in promoting its members' commercial interests. The
German minority newspaper is currently beholden to tight Ministry of
Information requirements, but its editor envisions a more
independent paper with expanded minority-community readership.
Finally, ethnic German scholars and scientists, supported by the
German government, are a well-connected part of the Kazakhstani
intellectual elite. End Summary.
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Germans in Kazakhstan: Ich bin kein Berliner!
---------------------------------------------
¶2. (SBU) Kazakhstan's Germans are descendants of Volga Germans
exiled to present-day Kazakhstan during World War II. Almost one
million ethnic Germans resided in Kazakhstan when the USSR
collapsed. But thanks to an open visa and naturalization regime and
generous welfare provisions in Germany, Germans left Kazakhstan in
droves after the country became independent. However, in Germany
many of the new arrivals struggled to integrate as they were labeled
troublesome "Russians". Minority representatives here now claim
about 1000 German families per year are returning to Kazakhstan,
where prior out-migration has created economic opportunities in
traditionally German sectors. Today the German minority numbers
about 226,000 and lives predominantly in northern Kazakhstan, around
Karaganda, Kostanay, Petropavlovsk, and Pavlodar.
¶3. (SBU) Despite the fact that many Germans have intermarried and
only a small percentage speak German, their identity remains strong
and emotional, not least due to a history of persecution and
hardship. Cultural traditions, especially surrounding Protestant
holidays, are actively maintained and provide a key mark of
distinction. The community also maintains a reputation for being
hard working, non-corrupt, and highly talented in agriculture,
craftsmanship, and science.
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German Tax Revenues at Work
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¶4. (SBU) The Kazakhstani German community is heavily funded by the
German government. German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), Germany's
international development agency, channels millions of euros every
year from Germany's Federal Ministry of the Interior to help
Kazakhstani Germans organize and prosper. GTZ Kazakhstan Director
Rainer Goertz told us that his government sees a responsibility to
support Germans, give them greater economic opportunities, and in
turn stem the flow of immigration to Germany. Annegret Westphal,
GTZ Central Asia minority program director, said funding aims to
anchor German minority interests so they make a recognizable
contribution Kazakhstani society.
¶5. (SBU) If anything, GTZ's German minority program in Kazakhstan is
expanding. Berlin is cutting social welfare spending for minority
returnees in favor of aid programs in countries of origin. GTZ has
restructured its strategy to emphasize organization, language
training, and youth and academic honors programs. One GTZ flagship
program in Kazakhstan is the German Social Fund, a 350,000-euro
investment that finances health programs for the German minority
through accrued interest.
¶6. (SBU) Goertz said Germany's engagement on behalf of the minority
is a sign that it will have to be taken seriously in Kazakhstan.
The Kazakhstani government, however, is watching GTZ activities with
a certain "curiosity". Westphal reported instances when aid to
ethnic Germans has created tensions within their communities. One
example was a winter relief program for rural Germans. The sight of
German families in remote villages receiving much-needed supplies
during a harsh winter embittered their non-German neighbors, and
Westphal said GTZ will not renew the program due to Kazakhstani
government unwillingness to co-finance it.
--------------------------------------------- ----------
Organization: German Efficiency with a Soviet Mentality
--------------------------------------------- ----------
ASTANA 00001562 002.2 OF 003
¶7. (SBU) Overall, the GTZ has been successful, as is evident in the
str
ength of the completely Berlin-funded Association of the Civil
Society Organizations of the Germans of Kazakhstan. The Association
is an umbrella organization that unites 23 German community centers,
called "Rebirths", which use earmarked GTZ funds to run language,
youth, social, and humanitarian programs. Kazakhstan is the only
country in the CIS where a single German umbrella organization
operates nationally. Kazakhstan's Assembly of Peoples consistently
recognizes the Germans as among the country's best organized
minority communities.
¶8. (SBU) The Astana Rebirth has all the expected trimmings of an
active community center: national crafts and excursion photos
covering the walls, a German-language library, a dining room, a
computer lab. Its most important activities are a German Sunday
school, in which around 35 children participate each week, and free
bi-weekly German language lessons. The Rebirth works closely with
the Astana German School, one of six public schools in Kazakhstan
which have mandatory German language instruction within a
Russian-language curriculum. The school's deputy director told us
that about 25 percent of the students are ethnic Germans.
¶9. (SBU) Aleksandr Dederer, founding president of the national
Association, is the most important figure in the German community.
He was the impetus for initiating a national German minority
movement in the early 1990s and deserves credit for the
Association's superb organization. Interlocutors stressed Dederer's
influence and personal relationship with President Nazarbayev.
(Comment: Dederer's office is adorned with photographs of himself
with the Kazakhstani leader. End Comment.) Despite his successes,
some voices in the German minority community criticized Dederer for
his authoritarian style. Westphal reported that since founding the
Association in 1992, Dederer has developed a reputation for being an
inflexible leader with a preference for a rigid top-down structure.
Much to the dismay of German government sponsors, three Rebirths
have even withdrawn from the Association due to disagreements with
Dederer.
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Chamber of Commerce: Delivering Results
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¶10. (SBU) The German-Kazakhstani Association of Entrepreneurs
(DKAU), also chaired by Aleksandr Dederer, is the chamber of
commerce of the German minority. Its 54 member-companies encompass
almost 13,000 employees and are most active in international trade,
foodstuffs and agriculture, construction, and machine tools. The
DKAU's largest member enterprises are Ivolga-Holding, which
purportedly controls 10-percent of Kazakhstan's agricultural
production, Gold Product, with 21 percent of Kazakhstan's wine
production, and Rakhat, one of the country's largest confection
producers. One of the DKAU's most important goals is to expand
investment relationships and knowledge transfer between Germany and
Kazakhstan. The DKAU claims this exchange strengthens the economic
potential of the German minority and contributes to its continued
stability and organization.
¶11. (SBU) Another chief DKAU goal is to represent member interests
before state bodies. Dederer's DKAU Deputy, Nadezhda Burluzkaya,
related events surrounding the company Gold Product and its ethnic
German owner Yury Vegelin. She claimed that Vegelin turned
thousands of hectares of failing vineyards into a successful and
environmentally-friendly enterprise that filled 150,000 bottles of
wine per day and produced a range of fruit and vegetable juices.
His success attracted the attention of the financial police, who,
accusing him of tax crimes, placed him under house arrest and
threatened to seize his assets.
According to Burluzkaya, DKAU, with the personal high-level
involvement of Dederer, fought a meticulous, bribe-free legal battle
to protect its member company. Vegelin was eventually cleared of
the charges and remains president of Gold Product. Burluzkaya said
the success of Dederer and DKAU attracted several companies,
including the non-German Rakhat confection company, to DKAU for the
protection it offered against state harassment.
-----------------------------------
Media: Wedded to the State, For Now
-----------------------------------
¶12. (SBU) The official newspaper of Kazakhstan's Germans is the
Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (DAZ). This German-Russian publication,
available in print and on the internet, is owned by Dederer's
Association but gets 90 percent of its funding from the Kazakhstani
Ministry of Information. The money comes with the requirement that
98 pages per year be dedicated to "intercultural understanding".
Ulf Seegers, DAZ German edition editor, said the requirement
resulted in excessive reporting on cultural festivals and he
lamented the toll it took on the newspaper's quality. DAZ is also
ASTANA 00001562 003.2 OF 003
required to regularly send to the Ministry of Information lists of
headlines, authors, and word counts for all articles published. The
paper practices self-censorship and avoids sensitive political
topics like President Nazarbayev and his family, Seegers reported.
¶13. (SBU) Seegers, who wrote his graduate thesis on transforming the
DAZ, envisions a newspaper less reliant on Ministry funds and more
directly targeted at the German minority. He alleged the DAZ is
routinely asked for bribes from Ministry of Information officials,
which it always declines to pay, resulting in delays in disbursement
of its financial support from the Ministry. He said the paper could
better be financed through advertisements. A prerequisite for this
would be that the paper circulate more widely among the broad German
minority community itself -- rather than among German expatriates
and internet readers as it currently does -- which is a key
long-term goal of the DAZ.
--------------------------------
Science: Einsteins of the Steppe
--------------------------------
¶14. (SBU) Some of Kazakhstan's most accomplished scientists are
ethnic Germans. Ernst Boos, an astrophysicist who chairs the German
Scientific Society in Kazakhstan, claimed the Kazakhstani government
spends an average of just three dollars per citizen for scientific
research annually. German government aid to the German Scientific
Society promotes scholarship in Kazakhstan by giving under-funded
scientists the opportunity to publish articles for free, present
findings at academic conferences, and deepen scholarly ties with
German-speaking countries. Boos stated that being an ethnic German
has boosted his reputation as a scientist, but familiar obstacles
remain. He claimed that one project he headed, an "Information Silk
Road" to create satellite links from Ukraine across Kazakhstan to
China, was "hijacked" by a government official in its concluding
phases, depriving him of credit for years of work.
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Comment
-
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¶15. (SBU) Despite its rapid contraction, the German minority in
Kazakhstan remains strong. Heavy German government sponsorship,
established leadership, and an efficient organization mean the
minority is likely to strengthen its place in Kazakhstan's national
pastiche. Resistance to state encroachment, particularly in the
business and media arms of Dederer's organization, as well as the
prominence of German scholars, demonstrate that the German minority
is more than a showpiece in President Nazarbayev's campaign to
advertise cultural harmony in Kazakhstan. End Comment.
ORDWAY

The information recorded on this site has been extracted from http://Wikileaks.org (Kazakhstan) database..

We wish to express our gratitude to Julian Assange and his team for making this data available as it is an important public record.

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